Tensions were noticeably high as Emily, Elder Gutknecht, and the Van Dorts returned to the Land of the Living early the next morning. Victor clutched onto Victoria's hand like as if it was a lifeline and had been ever since they left the Land of the Dead. Now, as the four stood in the Van Dorts parlor and reviewed over the plans, Victor could feel his anxiety intensify, and thus inadvertently grasped her hand even tighter.

"Darling," Victoria whispered into his ear, "that does hurt a little."

"I beg your pardon," Victor asked, obviously lost in his own little world of thought. Victoria looked down and Victor followed her gaze to find himself squeezing her hand enough to turn her knuckles white.

"Oh, I'm sorry dear," he said as he immediately released the pressure. "Did I hurt you much?"

"No Victor," she said reassuringly, giving the hand that was still holding hers a gentle pat with her opposite hand. "I'm fine. And please try to calm down some," she said in a concerned tone. Victor gave her a weak smile and nodded as if to concede, but he knew it was going to prove easier said then done.

"Now, everyone understand what is to be done," Victor heard Elder Gutknecht ask when he tuned back in.

"Yes," the women assured him simultaneously. Victor merely nodded in affirmation, at the moment finding it impossible to open his mouth without letting his anxiety slip through. Despite the fact that he hadn't been paying attention whilst the elderly skeleton had been reviewing a moment ago, Victor hadn't been able to get the images of what he was to do out of his mind. They seemed to play themselves over and over again. Pretend to leave the house for work, hide in the backyard until given the signal by Victoria, run in and rescue her before anything serious happens….

In other words, he thought somewhat guiltily, offer her up to the wolves and hope to heaven everything goes according to plan.

At the thought, Victor sighed more loudly than he had intended, which caused everyone else to gaze at him questioningly.

"Victor is everything alright," Victoria questioned from beside him. Victor gulped and nodded his head vigorously, trying his best to put his bravest face on.

"Y-yes, Victoria, I'm alright, I mean, everything is…is alright," he stuttered, not daring to meet eye contact with anyone and opted for studying the wood patterns on the parlor floor. He felt his wife give his hand a gentle squeeze, but he was too ashamed to return it. Why did he have to be such a cowardly fool?

"Victor my boy, if you're still having your doubts, do not fear," Elder Gutknecht said soothingly. "As I explained to you before, I cast a certain version of the Ukrainian Haunting Spell that would allow us to automatically transport between the two worlds. If anything goes wrong, Victoria could always just say…" the elder hesitated for fear of being accidentally sent back to the Land of the Dead, "that word I told you all to say, and she will be transported to safety. Rest assure, my boy, we wouldn't let anything happen to either of you."

Victor picked up his gaze from the floor and smiled appreciatively at the elder. "Thank you, sir, I…we are eternally grateful." Elder Gutknecht hobbled over to the couple and smiled tenderly at them.

"Any friends of Emily's are friends of mine," he said. Victor and Victoria looked over at Emily, who was just smiling sweetly at the trio. She cleared her throat somewhat emotionally before speaking up.

"Well, I guess it would be time," she said as she looked over at the grandfather clock in the corner. Victor followed her gaze to the timepiece to find that it was indeed around the usual time that he would leave for the office. He sighed heavily and nodded to Emily in affirmation.

"I will meet you in the garden shortly," he told her as he walked over to the foyer to gather his coat, hat, and work satchel. Emily nodded as a response and joined Elder Gutknecht in heading to the backyard. Meanwhile, Victor finished readying, took Victoria by the hand once more and led her outside to where the carriage was waiting.

"Please be of the up most care, my darling," Victor told her seriously as he stared deep into her eyes. Victoria smiled reassuringly at him.

"I will, Victor. You need not worry about that." Victoria stood up on the tips of her toes and kissed him deeply.

"I love you, Victor," she told him, not a trace of humor in her eyes. Victor leaned forward and wrapped his arms around her tightly.

"I love you too, Victoria," he whispered into her ear, trying to push aside the ridiculous yet nagging feeling of that being the last time he was to hold her, "more than you'll ever know."

Victor kissed her on the cheek one last time before reluctantly releasing her and climbing into the carriage. He leaned his head out the tiny window and watched her as she returned to the shelter of the house, all the while feeling a horrible ache in his heart. He knew it was foolish of him to be feeling as if he would never see her again, but some indelible force kept leading him to believe that it was. He just hoped that feeling would go away long enough for him to focus on the task at hand, so that in turn he could prevent his horrible premonition from coming true.

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Barkis sneered evilly to himself as he watched the young couple bid each other bittersweet farewells before Victor climbed into the carriage and supposedly headed off to work.

Fools, he exclaimed in his head. They think I don't know. They I'm some sort of clueless dolt, but in fact, they are they ones that are without the clue.

It greatly amused, if not offended, Barkis to think how much they had underestimated him; how they assumed he would be easily drawn into such a flimsy, palpable plan such as theirs; how they never once thought to consider the fact that Barkis would be capable of tracking their every move without being discovered, or how he could have possibly come up with the ingenious idea of cracking a window slightly in every room of the house before their return so that he may overhear any plans without having to enter the house. How dare they not consider those possibilities?

Well, no matter, he reasoned as he watched a sullen Victoria return to the supposed shelter of the house, as long as it gave me the advantage I need, I suppose it was all for the best.

"Well…for myself at least," Barkis said aloud as he cackled devilishly to no one. He proceeded to pick up the book of Dark Magic, which had been lying by his feet, and began to stroke it absently as he watched the carriage carrying the Van Dort fool roll down the road. He felt his elation double as he noticed it making an "unexpected" turn Barkis knew perfectly well wasn't in the usual route to his business. He then played out the rest of the route in his mind, picturing the carriage secretly roll down the unmarked road that led directly to the back of the Van Dort's mansion and the young Van Dort boy spilling out of it clumsy before hoping the fence and hiding amongst the bushes with the other two fools, just waiting for his arrival.

"Well, he's in for quite a wait," Barkis commented as he strolled over to his usual resting spot in the back of his alley and stretched out across the makeshift bed he had created out of odds and ends he found amongst the garbage. "I never strike until the dark of night." He proceeded to open the forbidden book in his arms and read over the spell he had already read at least a dozen times, enjoying the powerful, dark energy it filled him with.

"Go ahead with your silly little plans, Van Dort," Barkis spat out all of a sudden. "But just know I have the upper hand!"

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Victoria paced nervously around her and Victor's special room as she gazed at the timepiece that stood in the area Victor usually occupied. Nine o'clock. After what seemed like an eternity, nightfall had finally managed to come. She jumped slightly as the old grandfather clock faithfully began to chime, filling the spacious room with a somewhat ominous sound.

She sighed and mentally kicked herself for being such a jittery fool.

How in the world are you going to remain calm when Barkis arrives if you are frightened by a timepiece, she asked herself with frustration. She took a deep breath as she walked over to her side of the room and picked up an unfinished pair of mittens she had begun knitting for Victor a couple of days ago. She sat down in her favorite settee and began working away at the project, willing herself to calm down enough to quell the nervous shaking she had begun just after Victor had left that morning.

A few painfully slow minutes passed by with Victoria knitting undisturbed, but then all of a sudden she heard the front door swing open and shut in a rather pronounced manner. The knitting went flying to the floor as she jumped up from her chair in a mixture of fearful surprise and sickening expectancy.

Victoria took a deep breathe and began to think, trying to work past the awful knot that had developed in her stomach. For a second she felt as if she was going to faint from sheer terror, but she determinately pushed that feeling aside as best as she could and tried to clear her mind, which had seemed to inconveniently turn to mush.

Think, Victoria, think, she told herself as she quietly crept to the door to listen for any signs of movement. She gulped when she heard whoever had entered her house begin to make their way up the stairs. When she could no longer hear the footsteps, she gathered her courage enough to open the door and peek down the hallway.

To her immense relief, she saw that the foyer was empty. With the up most care, she crept out of the room and ran to the door as fast as she could in search of some sort of weapon. She nearly cried out in frustration when she discovered that her best choices were between an umbrella and a jacket. She relented for the umbrella and grabbed it before sneaking back to her special room, leaving the door open a crack and extinguishing any light in the room to allow her to peek without being notice. A few dreadful seconds passed before she saw Barkis himself make his way coolly back down the stairs and into the parlor to the right of the door.

Seeing this as her only advantage, Victoria once again crept from the room and made her way down the hall and up the stairs as fast as she could before she gave Barkis the chance to catch her.

What to do now, she wondered as she leaned up against the wall just around the corner of the staircase. She knew it would only be a brief moment before Barkis thought to check upstairs again and she would be discovered. She needed to get him into the room her and her husband and friends had preplanned before he had a chance to capture her. But how? She needed a moment to plan out her next moves.

Whatever time she had to think vanquished, however, for she soon began to hear Barkis make his way up the stairs again. She steeled herself and raised the umbrella to a defensive position, ready and waiting for Barkis to come into her line of view.

After what seemed like an eternity, he finally reached the last step of the long staircase. When he did, he turned his head slightly, caught sight of her, and gave her a leer.

"Hello, my d-," he began to say, but before he could get the last word out, Victoria channeled all her anger and hatred for that man into the umbrella and swung as hard as she could, striking him directly in the chest. Barkis made an "oof" sort of a sound before flying backwards and tumbling down the steps. Victoria tossed the umbrella aside before taking off like a shot to the guest bedroom they had planned to capture him in, hoping he was angry enough to follow.

Now for the signal, she thought as she searched the room for something hard and breakable. Her eyes finally spotted a vase sitting atop of a table next to the bed. She ran over, picked it up, and flung it as hard as she could at a window, watching the part of the window she struck shatter into a million pieces and the vase go sailing into night air. She sighed somewhat with relief, knowing that the vase would shatter all over the backyard and give the warning to her husband and friends that their prey had finally entered the trap.

Victoria turned around and got struck with a moment of de ja vu as she came face to face with a very angry Barkis. He sneered as he grabbed her roughly by the arm and uttered one sickening word.

"Surprise."

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Hello there! Sorry for the very long wait! I had trouble coming up with ideas and college has been keeping me busier than expected! Hope you aren't to upset with me! Anyway, I'll try to make the next update sooner and I hope this one lived up to your expectations! Reviews are, as always, greatly appreciated! Bye!